Lucia Pirisi-Creek, MD, a veteran professor in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology in the School of Medicine, was recently named biomedical research facilitator for the Office of Research and Health Sciences.

Dr Pirisi-Creek served on the Biomedical Research Initiative Steering Committee, a 16-member, faculty-led committee formed last year to develop and implement strategies for enhancing biomedical research at USC. The current committee, now co-chaired by exercise science professor Russ Pate and pharmacy associate professor Mike Wyatt, continues to advise and make recommendations to the administration on biomedical research.

As the research facilitator, Pirisi-Creek is responsible for providing administrative coordination and support of all biomedical research matters. The part-time position also includes responsibility for helping to develop policies and procedures for coordination of faculty hires, building and equipmnent needs, new research initiatives, and funding support.

“One of my challenges will be to help decide which projects will have the potential for the greatest impact,” said Pirisi-Creek, who joined USC’s medical school faculty 17 years ago after completing her medical degree at the University of Sassari School of Medicine in Italy and a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.

Pam Weiss, MA, has 25 years of experience in science writing, marketing and strategic planning, and project management. She has been working at the University of South Carolina for more than eight years. During that time, she served for three years as the Public Information Director for the Office of the Vice President for Research writing about the research going on at USC. This included launching a new Research Website, newsletter, and annual report. Weiss also helped to develop the proposal to establish the USC NanoCenter.

In 2001 Weiss became the Director of the newly formed Office of Research in the Arnold School of Public Health, which she held for three years. The office was responsible for supporting faculty in coordination and development of major interdisciplinary and inter-institutional grants, sponsoring grant workshops and training. It also established its own research database to track awards and applications and disseminate monthly reports and an annual research report,

Most recently, Weiss became project manager of two major initiatives. The Biomedical Research Initiative Steering Committee (BRISC), a 16-member, faculty-led committee, was formed in 2003 to develop and implement strategies for enhancing biomedical research at USC. The committee was co-chaired by exercise science professor Russ Pate and chemistry professor John Baynes. On a part-time basis, Weiss coordinated the activities of the BRISC committee and helped draft its final report  and recommendations, which are now posted on this website. The committee recommended 4 major initiatives to markedly increase the University’s productivity in biomedical research. Those recommendations can be found in the executive summary of the report, and the full text.

Weiss also served as part-time Project Manager for the newly formed South Carolina Nutrition Research Consortium, a collaboration of USC, Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the South Carolina Research Authority to address the critical nutrition research issues facing the state. She currently is managing the PALMETTO SC childhood obesity cohort project, a long-term prospective epidemiology study being led by exercise science professor Russ Pate, to identify factors that predict or determine the development of obesity in South Carolina’s children.